only the kindliest feelings.

It may be that a few will pray to be seen of men; but I suppose
that most people on a subject like this are honest. Personally,
I have not the slightest idea of the existence of the supernatural.
Prayer may affect the person who prays. It may put him in such a
frame of mind that he can better bear disappointment than if he
had not prayed; but I cannot believe that there is any being who
hears and answers prayer.

When we remember the earthquakes that have devoured, the pestilences
that have covered the earth with corpses, and all the crimes and
agonies that have been inflicted upon the good and weak by the bad
and strong, it does not seem possible that anything can be accomplished
by prayer. I do not wish to hurt the feelings of anyone, but I
imagine that I have a right to my own opinion. If the President
gets well it will be because the bullet did not strike an absolutely
vital part; it will be because he has been well cared for; because
he has had about him intelligent and skillful physicians, men who
understood their profession. No doubt he has received great support
from the universal expression of sympathy and kindness. The
knowledge that fifty millions of people are his friends has given
him nerve and hope. Some of the ministers, I see, think that God
was actually present and deflected the ball. Another minister
tells us that the President would have been assassinated in a
church, but that God determined not to allow so frightful a crime
to be committed in so sacred an edifice. All this sounds to me
like perfect absurdity--simple noise. Yet, I presume that those
who talk in this way are good people and believe what they say.
Of course, they can give no reason why God did not deflect the ball
when Lincoln was assassinated. The truth is, the pulpit first
endeavors to find out the facts, and then to make a theory to fit
them. Whoever believes in a special providence must, of necessity,
by illogical and absurd; because it is impossible to make any
theological theory that some facts will not contradict.

_Question_. Won't you give us, then, Colonel, your analysis of
this act, and the motives leading to it?

_Answer_. I think Guiteau wanted an office and was refused. He
became importunate. He was, substantially, put out of the White
House. He became malicious. He made up his mind to be revenged.
This, in my judgment, is the diagnosis of his case. Since he has
been